DWTS Season 12 – The Great “Previous Dance Experience” Debate, Part I
It seems like every season, some of the fans gripe that [insert celeb here] shouldn’t be allowed to do the show because they have “previous dance experience”. Now while I have never heard it explicitly stated as a rule that no one with any experience whatsoever can participate in the show (contrary to a lot of fans who insist that the show is all about “starting with no experience and then growing”), it is rather interesting to examine the dance backgrounds of the various celebs that do the show each season. Which is exactly what we did for season 11 – and got a good perspective and quite a few laughs out of the experience 😉
So why not do the same this season, before the great ringer debate erupts again? Let’s see who might have the early edge, and who might just have 2 left feet, shall we?
Today we start with the ladies. First up, we have the lovely Kendra Wilkinson, who is probably best known as one of Hef’s ex-girlfriends from The Girls Next Door. Here she demonstrates some martial arts-inspired exercise moves for ExerciseTV.tv, but not before warming up with some heavy-duty booty popping:
Courtney: Admittedly, Kendra’s got rhythm. If this were booty-popping with the stars, she’d be a shoo-in for the mirror ball trophy. However, I don’t think Len would be too pleased if Louis started incorporating these moves into Kendra’s routines 😉 But props to her for not being afraid to move – I think that’s what Holly’s big problem was. She’s was too scared to really get DOWN.
Vogue: All I can say here is please, EVERYONE ELSE MOVE OVER. GIRL CAN GYRATE! If a girl can gyrate, she can do ANYTHING! Am I right on this? I know I am! 😀
Heidi: So, what’s the deal with the peacocks in the background?? Is that some sort of play on words for “The Mansion”. And has it occurred to anyone that they paired Kendra with the pro least likely to have spent significant time there? Seriously – Derek’s been several times and I bet Maks and Tony have as well. 🙂 Boys.
Courtney: It was taped at the mansion – I watched that particular episode 🙂 And yes, there’s quite a bit of irony there in the fact that Kendra got paired with Louis of all pros. Maybe they thought he’d be the least distracted by her ample bosom & gyrating badonkadonk?
Next up we have Chelsea Kane (aka Chelsea Staub) from Disney’s Jonas, shaking her groove-thing Tina Turner-style on the Disney cruise ship:
Vogue: Hmmmm, this girl could be in trouble. Mark might his work cut out for him. But, Chelsie will be better than Bristol. Then again, ANYONE WILL BE BETTER THAN BRISTOL!!!! 😀
Heidi: Judging by the faces she makes she’ll be the perfect partner for Mark. How old is she though? He might start dating her. 🙂 She’s his type, after all. Win-Win for Marky. 🙂
Courtney: Aaaand cue the rose petals, candlelit dinners, and weekends in Napa 🙂 JK. She’s definitely cute, and she seems to not take herself too seriously – which is good, because you never know when a monkey suit or a ridiculously ruffled polka dot dress might be headed your way!
Our next contestant is the sassy Kirstie Alley, who did a sexy little impromptu dance with John Travolta (and a bowl of pudding) in Look Who’s Talking:
Heidi: Props are bad.
Courtney: Yeeeah, Len probably would call the bowl of pudding “rubbish” (take heed, Maks!), but this is a cute scene nonetheless – even if the baby steals it 🙂 I wonder if Vinnie Barbarino himself will crop up in the audience this season to cheer Kirstie on.
Vogue: OMG! Kirstie can GYRATE too? Hey, don’t ever count a woman out if they can hold a spoon like that too.
Now onto the beautiful Petra Nemcova, who did a little bit of grooving at a Prince Albert Foundation benefit – I’m fairly certain she’s the one in the lime green dress:
Courtney: Work that skirt, girl! If all else fails, Dmitry can just dress her in a long skirt each week, and somehow work it into the choreography 🙂
Vogue: Look at that. I think Star Jones might be jealous? 😯
Heidi: Pretty sure that skirt choreography is not far removed from “props” in terms of “messin’ about” in Len’s world.
Courtney: Hell, he did it with a feather duster with Mya – wouldn’t surprise me if Dmitry managed to come up with another prop that Len absolutely LOATHED.
Lastly, we have the hilarious Wendy Williams, who got a quick lesson in kick line routines from the world-famous Radio City Rockettes on her show back in December:
Vogue: Hey, Wendy reminds me a little of RuPaul here.
Heidi: I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Wait, she’s partnered with Tony, we think, right? Bwahahahaha…decision made.
Courtney: I think Vogue might seriously be onto something – because Ru & Wendy sometimes look like they were separated at birth. As for this little ditty – yikes. Looks like Tony’s got his work cut out for him, since she looks extremely wobbly just kicking her leg a few inches. They might need a crash mat just for regular practice, I’m afraid :-/ *cue montage of Wendy falling down during practice*
So now that you’ve seen these ladies’ mad dancing skills…what do you guys think? Do we have any ringers (or stinkers) in our midst? Keep an eye out for part II, where we take a look at the dancing prowess of this season’s gents – and let me tell you, kids, it is even more HILARIOUS than the ladies 😉 Stay tuned!!!
Nice digging to find these videos guys! Although I don’t think a lot of it will really reflect on their dancing when they actually try 100%, give it their all, and know they’re being judged. Scarieness sometimes does wonder for someone’s dancing 🙂 Overall I actually think all the ladies will be at least competent/decent, I don’t see any that could be absolute stinkers (I am, however, still debating over Wendy and Kirstie). Loved the comments about Kendra! I don’t think Louis will be that distracted by Kendra’s coconuts, although he did show a heavy fascination for them with Niecy . watch Dance Center for Season 10 😉
So I was not the only one who thought of Ru Paul… LOL
Here’s Kirstie dancing with a young Patrick Dempsey in Loverboy (198?). I had a huge crush on him (still do) 🙂
youtube link did not post?
A big thing for performers is a lack of fear of the dance floor. I think Kendra has an edge there. She’s used to not wearing much and dancing in public. She obviously has body awareness and some sense of doing things to a beat. A lot of the early hurdles are mental, and I think she will have similar edge to what Nicole had, though obviously she’s nowhere near her caliber of dancer.
I honestly dont think anyone has ‘dancing experience’. Yeah Kendra can shake her ass and she is clearly flexible but she is not a dancer. I dont think any of the ladies are. Which I think is a good thing. More even playing field.
And you all know you wrong for that comparison of Wendy. But I wouldnt sleep on her either. That lady is a very outspoken and determined lady. And she has a lot of fans on both coasts. I wouldnt sleep on her just yet.
I fact Im not gonna judge not one celeb until I see them on the floor. Anyone could surprise me
Mark dating Chelsea Kane? If it has anything to do with ABC its more like cue the flight to an African safari, the randon picnics in the middle of a safari, the random 5 star resort in a safari, and the kiity cats dressed up as monkeys playing in the background..,,In a safari 🙂
I think you may have missed the point of the post, Greg – the tone was meant to be humorous, as Vogue, Heidi, & myself agree that no one really has any “dance experience”, per se. But just wait – there will be people that start complaining about Kendra’s “previous dance experience” the moment she starts doing well. We started this series last year as a sort of retort to people complaining about Jennifer & Brandy being ringers – we found videos of the ridiculous (and often embarrassing) dancing they’d done in the past to illustrate that it really didn’t give them much of an edge. I think we did the same thing this season – only these ladies have even LESS experience, which makes it funnier 🙂
As for the Ru/Wendy comparison – right or wrong, it was funny & fit in with the tone of the post. And I know we’re not the only ones that have done it. Yes, Wendy (or any of the contestants) may surprise us all & turn out great. She could also be an absolute disaster…and after seeing how she struggled with simple movements in this video, I’m thinking she’s gonna have to work hard this season in order to keep up with more “natural” movers like Kendra & Chelsea. Guess we’ll wait & see!
No I got it! No harm no foul 😛
Wow, what an awesome video round up! Nicely done.
Kendra makes me want to work out. Or at least watch some more of her workout videos. Last I saw her though, she was falling apart. We’ll see what she’s like on DWTS.
I can’t believe we haven’t had the Mark and Chelsea romance rumors. I’d give it 1.5 weeks to start. Mark can’t resist it.
Kirstie did move ok in that video. Although, I’m predicting disappointment on DWTS. Like my wife said, I use to love her on Cheers. What happened?
Are we finally going to have a model that can move in Petra? Ok, Brooke Burke did well. Petra will definitely fall short of that standard, but she won’t be as terrible as the rest of the models that have been on DWTS.
Was Wendy dancing in that video? All I saw was the Rockettes. They looked wonderful.
Ok so we dont have any Bristols by the looks of it. Hallelujah!!! But I think Kendra has the biggest edge because she is used to physical work, as she is big on fitness and sports, and she has control of her body. However, we can’t say anything until we see her feet. I can imagine her being not gifted in the footwork department. Also, now this is just a theory, I don’t think Kendra is going to go more than halfway because people associated with Playboy, at least IMO, lose votes with the family-oriented audience. Pam was in the bottom two after the first two weeks and notice how Joanna got voted off the week that Hugh Hefner weighed in on the show in her bio video thing. Idk I might just be seeing things here, but that’s just my two cents.
Bt dubs, can we say HALLELUJAH that there is no Christine O Donnel!! Thank you jesus
I think Mark has been pretty reliably shown to be at least semi-seriously involved with Chelsie Hightower.
Don,
Mark has been pretty reliably semi-serious with a half dozen different girls (including many past partners). I don’t care either way, but just wait for the Mark and Chelesea romance rumors…or are they fact. That we may never know.
I think Kendra and Chelsea are the most natural movers out of this group. Petra seems self-conscious, and Wendy looks like she may be an awkward mover. I would LOVE Kirstie Alley to do really well (just love her spunk and dry wit), but I’m worried after the deer in the headlights look she had on the clip from the cast announcement-yikes!
I agree with you Wendy, out of all the female celebs, I think Kendra and Chelsea are the most natural movers out of this group. I truly don’t see Petra going far though she’s got a moving story and Wendy looks awkward. I would love to see Kristie Alley do well and stick around, guess we will have to wait and see.
Great post ladies! Looking forward to part 2 when you all discuss the guys. I know they have not danced yet, but somehow I think one of male celebs is going to win this season. Did you all catch the E news article discussing the odds of who would win this season? Top choice was Kendra followed by Chelsea and Ralph Macchio.
Thanks for this post Courtney. Let it be said again that there isn’t a spot of ballroom or latin training with these gals. Although, Nicole could do that booty thang pretty well and look how she turned out. I agree that Kendra is an athlete which may really help (I once saw her show where she kept sinking basketball shots – in spike heels). I’m hoping for everyone to try their best and listen to their pros. And for world peace.
My favorite women at the start are Kendra and Chelsea. John, ITA about Chelsea Kane romance rumors. There’s no way Mark can resist all that Chelsea and the Disney clout could bring to his fledgling music career. It should be fun to watch.
Mandy, Joanna got voted off when it came down to her versus Kelly – Kelly was very well liked by the whole audience. That’s why Joanna went home. I doubt very much HH had anything to do with it. Joanna was an unknown and Derek can only take you so far. 🙂 Considering what he started with, Joanna did fantastic lasting as long as she did.
To Jay – “I’m hoping for everyone to try their best and listen to their pros. And for world peace.” Amen to that, my friend, Amen indeed. From your mouth to each and every celeb’s ears.
All in all, once again, I’m excited about the new season. I hope everyone does well – there’s no one in the bunch I can say I hope doesn’t stay very long. The elims may turn out to be pretty teary all around. Can’t wait until they release a few rehearsal videos – those don’t tell the whole story, of course, but you do get a sense.
Snarky comment #1 from my dry witted friend who shall remain nameless because he doesn’t like to admit he’s a fan: after the announcement of the pairings – “Well, I don’t see Maks lasting more than a week or two … he’ll have plenty of time to plan the wedding.” 🙂 🙂 🙂
I don’t really have a comment. I just came back to watch the beginning of Kendra’s video again. 🙂
[…] other day we took a look at some of the previous dance experience this season’s female contestants have. Today we take a look at the fellas…and boy do we have some good laughs in store for you […]